Aventine Renewable Energy reopens BNSF-served ethanol plant in Nebraska

Aventine Renewable Energy Inc. yesterday announced it successfully restarted the Vogelbusch 45 million-gallon-capacity ethanol plant in Aurora, Neb., at June's end.

Located near a BNSF Railway Co. mainline, the Nebraska Energy L.LC. plant has processed more than 600,000 bushels of corn and shipped 1.2 million gallons of ethanol and dried distillers grain by rail and truck since the facility restarted production. The plant had been idle since spring 2012.

“We expect to meet rate capacity for corn ethanol production by mid-August,” said Aventine Renewable Energy President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Beemer in a press release.

The company has hired 24 employees and invested $700,000 to upgrade operating systems at the plant, including a grain-grading lab, two new platform scales, new access roads and a computerized system designed to more efficiently weigh truckloads of corn.